Gospel—Bill Prost
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When I went to public school.
When I went to public school, we generally found that there was a need for a call to order.
And sometimes we need to.
Just.
What did your principal tell you when you went to public school?
So let's all just take our seats if we can just be quiet and I'd like to sing a very serious hymn together.
#25.
#25 life at best is very brief.
Like the falling of a leaf, like the binding of a sheaf.
Be in time.
Fairest flowers soon decay, it says in verse 2, Youth and beauty pass away. Oh, you have not long to stay.
Be in time #25.
Life at first.
And you're crying. Just delighted.
In time.
Thank you. Thank you.
In time begin time.
Great time.
For the voice of Jesus told you being time.
We have to send you all your ways.
00:05:25
For him tonight.
We can time bring it in, time to give you joy.
Why? The boy said. Jesus knows your being in time.
He had considered all the relations.
Let's ask the Lord's help tonight.
Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee tonight.
And we thank thee that there is still time.
But we do pray that the solemnity of what we have sung together, the solemnity of what is before us.
Might be before each one here tonight.
We know what we are to consider tonight, the issues of life and death and of time and eternity.
And we know our God that as we have sung together.
There may not be time indefinitely.
And so we pray that Thou wilt bless Thy word tonight. We pray specially for anyone in the room here tonight that is not saved.
Someone that may be pretending, as we said in the readings this afternoon.
Someone who may have grown up in a Christian home or God, we pray.
Let us reopen Thy precious word that thou use it in blessing to someone tonight.
We pray too, for the word of thy grace and other places, and ask thy blessing upon it.
And we commend it to thee, for we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to sing part of another hymn tonight.
#40 I think everyone ought to be able to join in the singing of this hymn #40 Jesus loves me, this I know.
#40 will sing the 1St 2 verses and the last verse 1-2 and five number 40.
Jesus.
Loves.
You.
Did I know our mysteries? Christmas laughing.
Yes, Jesus.
Loves me, you're dead.
So.
00:10:43
Well, we'd like to welcome everyone to the Gospel meeting tonight.
I know most that are sitting here tonight as they look around have grown up in Christian homes and most here have already heard the gospel.
But we want to emphasize to each one of our hearts the seriousness of what we have before us tonight.
And I'd like to turn first of all to the book of Romans for a few verses, just by way of introduction.
We don't have very long, just a little over 1/2 hour, but that's plenty of time to present the gospel.
So let's turn to Romans chapter one.
Romans chapter one and verse one.
The Apostle Paul writing here to those in Rome.
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under the gospel of God.
Which he had promised a four by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith.
Among all nations.
For his name.
Now going down a little further to verse 15.
So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew 1St and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Who will hold the truth in unrighteousness? And so on.
There are a number of things that need to be made very clear about the gospel.
And we're going to try and speak simply tonight so that even the youngest child here, we hope, can understand.
As we said a few moments ago, we want to welcome everyone to the gospel because the word gospel means good news.
But I want to tell you right at the outset that the gospel, and this may be a shocker to some of you here, the gospel is not primarily about you.
Not first and foremost. You know we live in a world today when everyone is saying me first.
When most people are thinking about themselves, and the world around us teaches us to do that. If you don't look after yourself first, who else will? And so you take care of number one first, as they say.
But I want to say this very reverently when God brings the gospel before us in Romans 1 here.
What does it say? It says concerning his Son Jesus Christ, and it talks about him as we read there in Romans one verse 4 declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness, by the erection, by the resurrection of the dead. We want to say at the outset that the gospel begins with the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:15:13
Because God has His purposes concerning His beloved Son.
You know, as we look around in the world today, we read about men having their purposes and what they hope to do, what they hope to accomplish, what they hope to build. But we tell you tonight, whoever you are, whether you have grown up in a Christian home under the sound of the Word of God or whether you have never heard the gospel before, that God has his purposes concerning his.
Beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ and that one whose name is used in mockery and swearing in this world, and that one whom man rejected and said we will not have this Mandarin over us nearly 2000 years ago. God says my purposes are centered in my beloved Son.
Is he going to be frustrated in all of that? No.
But coupled with that same precious truth, and that's the first one, is the second truth.
That there is a God to whom you and I are responsible.
Reminded of a story, and I've told it before, but it bears repeating. And this happened quite a few years ago now, back in the days when train travel was more common.
And a middle-aged man got into a train somewhere in the United States of America and sat down beside a girl who was in her early 20s.
And he noticed that she had her Bible open before her.
He said, is that your Bible? She said, yes, it is. He said, are you a Christian? She said, yes, I am.
Well then he said, maybe you can help me.
He said I grew up an atheist. That means one that doesn't believe there's a God. I grew up an atheist. My father was an atheist, my grandfather was an atheist, and that's all I heard all my life was that there was no God.
But he went on to say.
Just a few days ago, just last week, my father died.
And he didn't die in a hospital, he died at home.
And he died mainly of old age.
And he went into what we call in medical circles a coma. That is, he became unconscious.
And we were all just sitting around the bed, we who were of his family, waiting for the end to come.
And he said all of a sudden.
And I can't tell this without choking up.
Said all of a sudden my father sat up bolt upright in bed.
He said. I'll never forget it. Half shouted, half screamed.
There is a God, there is a hell, and I'm going to it.
He fell back on the debt on the bed and was gone.
All the man said to that young girl. I can't get that image out of my mind of a man who lived for over 80 years.
And everything I ever heard from him was that there was number God.
He said maybe you can help me.
Well, she did her best to preach the gospel to him.
She never saw him again, never heard whether he got saved or not. But tonight I say to you, on the authority of God's word, there is a God to whom you and I are responsible. And despite the headlong course of this world, Oh yes, you may say, well, I do believe there's a God.
But you know, there are many in this world who will admit there's a God, but they don't want to admit that he's relevant to their lives or that they have to be concerned about him and how they live and whether anything that God thinks and does has any relevance to the way they are. All, my friend, there is a God, a God to whom you are responsible.
But you know, the wonderful thing is that there is a God, a holy God to whom you are responsible, but a God who loves you.
And it's the most wonderful message that this world has ever heard, that there is a God who looks down in this audience tonight at every man, every woman, every child, every boy, every girl. And he loves you.
00:20:11
I think it's all right to speak about this, but we have a Sunday school back home where I live.
And a lot of those children that come to Sunday school come from pretty rough homes, and many times they haven't experienced much love in their lives. They've been kicked around from one place to another.
I remember one very touching incident.
Where a boy came to Sunday school.
And eventually we lost track of him and we said to his father, what happened? Where is he?
Oh, they said the authorities took him away from me for one thing or another. He wasn't being a good father. They took him away from me.
So we found out where he'd been taken, what foster home we'd been taken to, and we asked his foster parents would they let him come to Sunday school. They said they would. So he brought him to Sunday school.
And his father used to come to Sunday school, too, because that's one time when he could legally see his son. And then after Sunday school, he had to watch us drive away with his son to take him back to the foster home. Or the father walked down the sidewalk with his head bowed and his heart sad. Now, I'm not questioning what the authorities did. I doubt very much that they they must have had a good reason for it. I'm not saying anything about that. The point is, they don't know much about love.
And when we tell them that God loves them, they find it hard sometimes to relate to all of that.
And to recognize that there is love in this world. Oh, I say to each one here tonight, whatever your background, whether you've been brought up in a loving home, whether you've grown up with a lot of Hard Knocks, as the world says, there is a God up there who cares about you and he loves you.
And what kind of a love?
Did God show? What kind of a love did God display to you and me? Oh, do I even need to turn to the verse?
For God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
I imagine if I went around this room, many people.
Could repeat that verse from memory.
But will that save you?
I can still remember being in Australia about 10 or 12 years ago and we went into a candy store there to buy something as a Hostess gift for a family we were going to visit.
And in the course of paying for the candy.
I offered the two girls that were running the candy shop, they were in their early 20s, a little wallet calendar that had a wallet calendar on one side and God's word on the other. Many here are familiar with them.
And one of them took it, looked at it.
And there was John 316 on one side, so she started to read it.
Then put the card down like this and finish the verse from memory.
I was so thankful to hear that. So thankful. Finish the verse without a mistake, just as I quoted it.
But, you know, the end of the story wasn't very good. I said, oh, I said, that is wonderful. Where did you learn that verse? I said, did you go to Sunday school? She said, yes, I did. But she had that kind of a smile, a kind of a look on her face that I didn't like. And her friend that was there started in and said, yeah, yes, so and so, naming her by name. And I hesitate to repeat what she said, but she said, oh, yeah, you didn't learn much else there, did you? And the whole time there just ended in an uproar of laughter.
Mockery.
And I couldn't get a serious word out of them.
Oh, she memorized the verse, but it had no effect on her heart. And I say to you tonight, what effect does the love of God have on you tonight?
Oh, God is reaching out to you in love today. Why? Because He cares about you and where you're headed.
What did we read here in Romans? It says in verse 5, Romans 1, by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations.
00:25:03
For his name.
All we say to you on the authority of the word of God, don't be deceived by things that you hear today.
God has only one way to be saved.
Remember well-being on a plane not too long ago and I got into conversation with a man beside me.
And in the course of our conversation, he wanted to argue that there were many different ways to be saved and that somehow it didn't matter what Rd. you went as long as you were sincere about it.
Well, it so happened, and you'll pardon a personal reference, It so happened that we had something in common, he and I, in natural things.
We were both medical doctors.
And so I ventured to put something to him on that basis. I said to him, let's talk about something very down to earth.
I said if I were to take a certain medication, and I named a medication that he could recognize very well, and I said, suppose I were to take that medication in all good faith. And I named an illness where I knew that that medication would have absolutely no effect. I said, would all the sincerity on my part make any difference to the fact that that medication does not cure that particular ailment?
Well, he had to admit that that was a true statement.
Oh, I say to you tonight on the basis of what God has given us in his Word.
We don't need to be in doubt about these things. We don't need to philosophize about it. We don't need to make all kinds of ideas up out of our own heads. God has given us in his precious word everything that we need to know how to be saved. And tonight we want to bring the facts of the gospel before you. We've mentioned two or three of them.
The fact that there is a God to whom you are responsible. The fact that God has purposes concerning His beloved Son.
But #3 the fact that God loves you and wants you to share in all of that.
Is that possible? Yes, it is. And God who has those purposes to raise the Lord Jesus Christ up His head over all things. He wants you to be involved in all that He is going to be doing with His beloved Son.
You know what's a wonderful thing sometimes? To gain the favor of someone in this world who's in a place of influence or who is in a place of power. It's a wonderful thing to gain the influence of someone who has the ability to manipulate people and events and get something for us.
I read some time ago about a man in a foreign country who was having a very, very difficult time. He held a high position in that foreign country, but things had come in, I won't go into the details to the point where he was struggling very much financially, but because he moved in some circles to do with government, he had a friend, He had a friend in Canada by the name of Roland Missioner, who used to be the ambassador at that time to India.
And he spoke to Roland Missioner about his problem.
Roland Missioner said, well, he said, I've known you for a long time, how would you like to immigrate to Canada? How would you like to immigrate to Canada? I know it'll be a struggle, but there will be more opportunities there than you can have. And this is not to speak disparaging of its disparagingly of any country.
Was it any problem for Roland Missioner to arrange all that? Did they have to go through all kinds of interviews and all kinds of papers with the consulate there in India and all kinds of waiting periods and talking to different people? No, Rule and missionary just opened all the doors for him and within a matter of a few weeks he was on his way to Canada. Very simple.
Oh, I say to each one here tonight, the God who made this universe.
The God who made you and me looks down this evening at you in that seat. He knows your name, He knows all about you, and he wants to bless you.
00:30:03
Could we turn over to 1St Corinthians 15 for a couple of verses?
I love this chapter because Paul here is writing to believers.
But he says in the first verse.
Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you, the gospel isn't that nice?
Even though many of them, and probably all of them, although we can't be sure we're truly saved.
Yet he brings before them the gospel, because there was such fullness, such blessing, such joy in giving it out again. And he says there in verse 3, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
The fourth point I want to bring before you tonight is that man is utterly ruined and lost, and that is often the thing that you and I find the hardest to admit.
We don't need to turn to verses, we can multiply them. There is none that doeth good. No, not one, for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Over and over again we could quote verses from God's Word which would bring before us very clearly the utter ruin of man.
I was very interested the other day when I was sitting in an office waiting for an appointment to pick up a magazine.
And it's a fairly up-to-date magazine.
It was a recent issue.
And in that issue, someone was looking into the whole question as to why the human race does so many bad things.
Well, I thought I don't need to read this magazine to know the answer to that question, but I want to find out what they say.
And they had actually gone to the trouble and maybe others recognized this article of running a number of studies on people where they set them up. And they even wired them through little electrodes put on their skulls to influence certain sections of the brain from what they know of that. And then they presented certain videos to those people of various kinds of things to see what the reaction would be.
And you know what the conclusion was?
I thought to myself, well, I didn't need this article, but I was, at least up to that point, thankful that they arrived at the right conclusion. You know what they said? They said we have to admit on the basis of these studies that the human race is hardwired to sin.
Hardwired to sin. We know what that expression means. It simply means that no matter what kind of individuals they were dealing with, no matter what their background.
When they presented certain stimuli to them of things that anyone would admit were sinful, there was a positive reaction. Even though it wasn't spoken. They could detect it. They could detect the brain waves that said that those evil thoughts were going on in their minds. Frightening.
O beloved friend, we don't need all that to prove. God has told us in no uncertain terms in His Word.
That man is lost, not only a Sinner, but lost. And I say to you tonight, if you're not saved, you're lost. Doesn't matter that you've been brought up in a Christian home. It doesn't matter that maybe you have been kept from many of the serious sins that this world does. It doesn't matter that you haven't maybe gotten in trouble with the police or spent time in prison or been guilty of the things that men and women are.
In some cases executed for no.
You have a sinful nature and you're a Sinner before God.
But what does it say here? That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and it says he was buried.
00:35:00
And that he rose again the third day.
We had a little bit of that in the meeting this afternoon, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and I say to you this evening.
The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is probably the most important fact.
That we want to bring before you tonight, because if the Lord Jesus didn't rise from the dead.
Then I might as well sit down. We have no gospel. We have nothing to tell you unless the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. But as we had before us this afternoon, even from a natural point of view, even from the evidence of a legal mind, there is nothing that is so absolutely sure and beyond the shadow of a doubt as the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
You know, men have contested that. And again, I have told this story before, but it bears repeating about a man who once again was an atheist.
Way back, 75 or 100 years ago. But he wanted to appear at least educated. And so he visited the land of Palestine in order just to have an intelligent mind and to be able to speak about what went on there. And in the course of time he went to what is known as the Garden Tomb. Now, I've never been to the land of Palestine, so I'm only speaking from what others have told me. I've never been to Israel, but that garden, to my understand, is in the hands of the British.
And everyone that conducts the tours, whether or not it's the actual tomb of the Lord Jesus doesn't matter.
But everyone that conducts those tours is a believer, and it has been so for at least 100 years and maybe more.
And as this man with a small group was led into the tomb.
He looked around in mockery and ventured to voice his opinion. He said, well, what did you bring us in here for? There's nothing to see here. There's nothing in here. What's the point of bringing us in here?
Of course, it wasn't that big. Only a handful of people could go in.
Well, the guide was a believer and that man, he had said one thing too much at that time for an atheist. The guy drew himself up and without any hesitation said, yes Sir, you are absolutely right and I'm glad you do. Attention to that fact. He said there is nothing here because the tomb is empty. The one that lay in this tomb rose from the dead, and Christianity can show you an empty tube.
He said if you want to see a religious leader who's still in his tomb, there are many of them around the world. But we in Christianity can show you an empty tomb because the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. And if I may say so in the manner of speaking, he laid it on. He laid it on good and thick. That man went out of there. He couldn't get it out of his mind. Could it be true? Is it possible?
Did he rise from the dead? He went home, read the account, got a hold of a Bible and read the account.
He said it has to be true. All these people, they couldn't have conspired so many people to tell a lie for that period of time.
But what does the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ mean? Oh, we could refer to many different verses, but in Romans one, it brings before us that he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead. What does that mean? That means, beloved friend, that God is satisfied with the work that the Lord Jesus did.
Or you say maybe, have you got trouble with it? You say, I can't believe I had a college friend many years ago who said I can't believe I want to try and figure it all out for myself. I said something to him like this. I said, if God is satisfied with it, surely you and I don't need to argue with it. And when you're dealing with God himself, it says how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out your responsibility and mine is to accept it.
Beloved friends, tonight we present to you the Lord Jesus Christ who has finished the work on Calvary's cross to the full satisfaction of God, and God has attested to that by raising him from the dead. And as a result, that wonderful verse that we had in first John one and seven reads the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
00:40:10
And now I throw out the challenge, if I may, to you here this evening. Where do you stand with the Lord Jesus Christ?
I don't think the Lord is going to leave us here that long, but if the Lord were to leave us here, we'll say 100 years, everyone in this room.
Would be an eternity and it would not matter much whether you were rich or poor.
It would not matter much whether you were raised in a happy home or an unhappy home. It wouldn't matter much at that time whether you had a lot of things in this world or had literally nothing. But what would matter a great deal would be whether you knew the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And I'm speaking, as I said earlier, to many here who have heard the gospel many times. I ask, is it real with you?
Or are you like those girls in Australia I mentioned a while ago?
Who could quote John 316 as well as any of us, and yet who did nothing but make a mockery of it. Where does that leave us? Oh, our time is nearly gone, but let's turn over to the book of the Acts.
Because we're talking about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And in Acts 17, it tells us there in verse 30.
And the times of this ignorance, that's back in the Old Testament.
God winked at or passed over.
Doesn't mean God wasn't concerned, it doesn't mean men weren't responsible, but it does mean that you are more responsible and God deals in responsibility.
I may say that the fact that you are here tonight makes you more responsible.
It says in the latter part of verse 30, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Why? Because He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge this world in righteousness.
By that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath raised him from the dead.
You know, men don't want to believe the resurrection. People want to deny it because if the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, oh, what a frightening thing it is.
Up in our local area in Canada.
About 20 years ago or so.
There was an awful man, terrible man, who abducted an 8 year old girl and abused her in every possible way, which I will not soil your ears by going into the details of and eventually took a knife.
Slitter throat.
And thought he'd murdered her and left her there.
He vanished into the woodwork, as we'd say.
She was found.
Got medical help and she didn't die.
Long time to recover, but she recovered all her faculties. She hadn't lost anything, including the ability to speak, which they all thought she would not have.
And over the years, that case was kept open as they continued to try and find.
The individual that had perpetrated that awful act, eventually with modern methods of evidence and with DNA evidence that they had caught up, that they had saved from.
The time when she was.
Supposedly murdered, they caught up with the individual 20 years later.
Who had done it?
And the evidence was incontrovertible. There was no way that he could wiggle out of it.
And so a court date was set.
You know, that man couldn't face it. That man couldn't face the fact that he would have to stand in that courtroom and across the courtroom would be not the little 8 year old girl that he had tried to murder 20 years ago, but a woman who was capable of testifying about everything that he had done.
In front of a judge and a jury and a crowd of people and so on.
That man committed suicide in his cell. He never made it to the courtroom. He couldn't face it.
00:45:03
This world, this girl was alive. In the meanwhile, that man had thought he could get away with it. He'd gone away, he'd gotten married, he'd had children, living a normal life. Terrible shocker to his family when the police arrived on his doorstep and arrested him. But there was no question that he was guilty. Oh, beloved friend, how much more serious for you to have to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ in the coming day if you're not saved? And know that the very one whom you refuse to believe, the very one who died on Calvary's cross.
The very one who suffered in order that you might be saved, that very one is going to be sitting on the throne of Judgment.
He doesn't need books, but God keeps books just to show that He's just and everything about you will be brought out in that day.
Our time is gone.
Oh thank God, there's wonderful blessing for those that are saved, wonderful blessing for those that come to Christ.
As we said earlier, the Lord Jesus wants to share everything that He has with you. He wants to share everything that He's won, not only what he has by nature of his being the Son of God, but all the inheritance, all the purposes of God that God has concerning him. He wants to share it with you. Do you and I deserve that? Not one little bit. Nothing but loss, Guilty sinners. That's what we are by nature.
But God's love flows out to you tonight.
What are you going to do?
You don't have to answer that question to me.
But just in closing, I'd like each one here to answer that question before you go to bed tonight. Don't put it off. Don't say I'll settle it tomorrow. Don't go down to the bonfire and have a happy hymn sing or whatever you're going to do. And just think, well, there's time. No, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the way of salvation.
Let's sing the 1St and the last verses of #12.
#12.
Just as I am without one plea.
For that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. But don't sing it unless you mean it. OK, don't sing it unless you really mean it #12 The 1St and the last verses.
Just as I.
Was.
Born.
Like to close with one more story? That's all right.
Every time I sing that hymn, and I've known it since I was a boy.
But every time I've sung that hymn in the last 20 years.
It reminds me of a gospel meeting we had in Romania in Eastern Europe.
And this was right after the communist government had been overthrown and people.
00:50:02
We're hungry for the gospel, and if a gospel meeting were announced, all kinds of people would come in, sometimes hundreds.
On this particular occasion, I would suppose they were between 3 and 400 at the gospel meeting.
And of course I had to speak through a translator.
But after that meeting.
Someone from the audience suggested this hymn.
It's been translated into Romanian.
But before they did.
A boy put up his hand and nobody called for, nobody said if anyone wants to be saved or anything. A boy put up his hand, 11 years old, and he said I want to be saved and I want to be saved right now.
Well, I couldn't speak Romanian, so several people who were near him, who were believers asked him a couple of questions. And right there in the middle of that audience of people, he confessed Christ as his Savior.
And then they struck up that hymn in Romanian.
There must have been a good number of Christians there.
I couldn't sing, I just sat there with the tears running down my face as the note swelled louder and louder. Just as I am always say to each one here tonight if you're not saved.
You need to come just as you are. Let's pray. Our loving God and our Father, we look up to Thee again this evening and how we thank Thee for the precious truth of the gospel and how we thank Thee for each one here in this room tonight that has come just as they were.
But all we know that there may be someone here tonight that is not saved and we pray that they may not go to sleep tonight without settling the question.
We pray that they may.
Get before thee, our God and Father, about this serious issue.
And as thy word tells us, to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We commend Thy word to Thee for Thy blessing and ask all this in Thy name, Lord Jesus.
Amen.